Manufacturing methods for producing optical fibers typically include drawing optical fiber from a glass perform that is heated in a draw furnace, cooling the drawn fiber, and coating the fiber after it has sufficiently cooled. The process parameters employed by the fiber manufacturing process may have a significant impact on the resultant performance characteristics of the drawn fiber. In the manufacturing of the glass optical fibers, the optical preforms are heated to temperatures much above the glass softening point and then drawn at large draw down ratios to form glass optical fibers of about 125 μm in diameter. The high draw temperatures, large draw down ratios and fast draw speeds, can result in fiber diameter variability, defects in the glass matrix, increased Rayleigh scatter and increased attenuation. Thus, it is important to develop optical fiber manufacturing methods that provide high drawing rates while minimizing fiber diameter variability and improving fiber attenuation.